FEATURE ARTICLES

An independent commission is calling for a radical overhaul in the way health and social care are organised. It is proposing a new approach that redesigns care around individual needs.

A mobile hand hygiene training and assessment tool is being employed at one Trust to offer the infection control team a labour-saving device to help ensure good levels of hand hygiene compliance and also educate staff about good hand-washing technique. SUZANNE CALLANDER reports.

A recent study has explored factors surrounding the insertion and management of tracheostomies in both the critical care unit and the ward environment.

Thousands of people with the heart condition atrial fibrillation could be saved from strokes, disability or death, according to guidance published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

A single-use, one-size-fits-all device can help improve patient outcomes and also offer clinical time savings when dealing with digit procedures in theatre or cuts or lacerations in A&E. The Clinical Services Journal reports.

Dr TIM SANDLE considers some approaches that can be taken for the monitoring of hospital water systems to assess their microbiological quality.

A new £6.4 million dual hybrid endovascular theatre suite at the Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) will transform the treatment of patients undergoing minimally invasive vascular and cardiac procedures. Only a few such facilities exist world-wide. JONATHAN BAILLIE reports.

Salford Royal NHS Foundation Trust established a vision to become the safest organisation in the NHS. It has achieved this by aspiring to provide safe, clean and personal care to every patient, every time.

Following publication of a survey of NHS staff – looking at the current views on leadership, culture and compassionate care – The King’s Fund is calling for the promotion of collective leadership, as opposed to command-and-control structures, to help develop a better culture of care.

The Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) report for 2013 provides the latest analysis of adverse events in blood transfusion, as well as key recommendations. A summary of the full report, which is available on the SHOT website, is reproduced below by kind permission.

Achieving the right balance of staffing in hospitals is crucial to ensuring patient safety, as recent reports have highlighted. KATE WOODHEAD RGN DMS provides an insight into the latest guidance.

Will we be celebrating the centenary of antibiotics, in another 14 years, or will we have lost one of our most valuable resources? This was one of the key questions raised at a recent conference addressing ‘one of the greatest threats to human health’. LOUISE FRAMPTON reports.

Failure to understand the importance of managing temperature remains a key patient safety issue that must be addressed. Awareness of this issue was recently raised at an educational day, held in London. LOUISE FRAMPTON reports.

SUZANNE CALLANDER reports on the benefits that the installation of a 3D HD integrated operating theatre is offering to surgical teams and urology patients at Aberdeen Royal Infirmary (ARL).

New research shows that the likelihood of GPs prescribing antibiotics for coughs and colds increased by 40% between 1999 and 2011. The Chief Medical Officer has previously highlighted the need to tackle the problem of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), but could the introduction of point of care diagnostics provide a solution to over prescribing? LOUISE FRAMPTON reports.

WAYNE SPENCER offers comment on the use of low temperature sterilisation in sterile service departments, and asks whether the technology will be the subject of a revival in the UK as endoscopy techniques advance.

While there is a need for international efforts to tackle the threat posed by antimicrobial resistance, how can clinicians, pharma and governments take positive steps to help avert a crisis? SUSAN PEARSON reports.

At the NHS Confederation annual conference staffing issues, culture change and the need for honesty were high on the agenda. LOUISE FRAMPTON reports

Taking place at Manchester Central (Exhibition and Conference Centre), The British Society of Gastroenterology annual meeting (16-19 June 2014) will tackle a wide range of topical issues in gastroenterology – from improving the availability of 24/7 Acute Upper GI Bleeding (AUGIB) services, to the promotion of better alcohol services.

Various studies are taking place around the UK, looking at how key technologies could help to improve adenoma detection rates, as well as the diagnosis of other conditions such as coeliac disease. The Clinical Services Journal reports.